The future of ACP-EU relations

The EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States have governed their relationship since 1975 through a sequence of partnership agreements. The most recent of these is the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, which expires in 2020. Although official negotiations for a new partnership will not start until 2018, the future of the ACP-EU partnership has already been hotly debated for a number of years.

ECDPM, with more than 30 years of involvement in ACP-EU relations, helps guide this debate towards realistic and workable scenarios for the future that benefit all parties concerned. This dossier collects our past work on ACP-EU relations as well as our recent analyses of a future partnership.

Key analysis

Charting the course to 2020: Fundamental choices for the negotiation of a future ACP-EU partnershipAlfonso Medinilla and Jean Bossuyt, 29 January 2018

To navigate the multitude of issues, options and trade-offs raised by the renegotiations of the ACP-EU partnership, ECDPM’s Alfonso Medinilla and Jean Bossuyt outline the key choices and possible implications for all actors involved.

Negotiating a new agreement with the ACP post-2020: What is at stake in the coming monthsAlfonso Medinilla and Jean Bossuyt, 15 January 2018

On 12 December 2017, the European Commission presented its recommendation to the Council for negotiations with the ACP countries. We lay out three challenges to refine the Commission’s proposal in the coming months and ensure a much-needed modernisation of EU external action partnerships.

Can the EU prioritise both the African Union and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific group?Niels Keijzer and Alfonso Medinilla, European Think Tanks Group, 20 November 2017

A new brief by the European Think Tanks Group argues that leaving discussions on the future of ACP-EU relations out of the AU-EU Summit agenda could be, in the long run, a major missed opportunity. Failure to engage now will lead to continued fragmentation and duplication in the relationship between Europe and Africa.

Discussions on the future of ACP-EU relations are moving at a very slow pace, while the clock keeps on ticking. In a new policy brief, ECDPM’s Jean Bossuyt sheds light on the way to break the inertia. The preferred ‘umbrella’ scenario, he says, needs to be turned on its head.

Preliminary analysis of the EU Communication on a renewed partnership with the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the PacificJean Bossuyt, Niels Keijzer, Geert Laporte and Marc De Tollenaere, 25 November 2016

More on the future of ACP-EU relations

The publications below cover perspectives on the future ACP-EU relations, the changes in the global world order that have impacted the ACP-EU relations and present scenarios for the future of both ACP-EU relations and the ACP group itself.

The section below presents ECDPM’s work on complementary, competing or alternative structures. The publications look at relations governing strategic partnerships between the individual ACP geographic areas and the EU, including the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, the Joint Caribbean-EU Strategy, and the EC Communication on a Pacific-EU partnership.